I lay staring at the ceiling. Five minutes twelve seconds left. My mouth was dry, not unusual for when I woke up. In five minutes three seconds I had to get out of bed. Was there supposed to be a feeling or motivation when I woke up? As I lay here, all that went through my mind was the dread of the day to come.

The 24th job interview I had. Why was getting a job so hard? Why do you want this job? If I answered honestly, I was not a fan of starvation. I am also a large proponent of having a roof over my head. In another four minutes forty seven seconds somehow I needed the power to get out of bed. I heard the muffled yelling of my parents in the other room.

After waiting my remaining four minutes five seconds I dragged myself from my mattress. It wasn’t all that comfortable, but at least it wasn’t the day. I needed to get out of my house in the next twenty three minutes or I would be late. I walked to the restroom, passing through the hall of ‘family photos’ that decorated them. Each was faker than the smile on my face. In the hall, my parents' screaming match was louder and easier to determine what the yelling was about. As usual, I droned it out. I lost the ability to care or find it interesting when I was still in high school.

I took a shower, which lasted six minutes seventeen seconds, about four seconds less than average. I dried myself, and heard a loud impact sound. Wonder what my mother threw this time? It didn’t sound like something broke, so it likely wasn’t as fragile as the vase of three days ago. I put my suit on, struggled with the tie, which added a minute nine seconds to the three minutes fifty one seconds it took me to put on the suit. I had allotted myself five minutes exactly anticipating this, so it was fine. Currently, I was on my determined pace, and was looking to leave early. Half my time had elapsed, and all I had left to do was grab breakfast, coffee, and leave.

Walking to the kitchen, I left the small little enclave where my room and bathroom were. I grabbed myself a toaster pastry and grabbed the pot so I could pour my coffee into my mug. Today my father had brewed the morning blend. The sound as I poured my coffee was accented by him prattling off names my mother was, showing the same creativity he had shown two days ago. It had only taken me two minutes thirty four seconds to secure breakfast and I was moving to leave the house. I passed a wall covered with awards, and a case filled with trophies I had obtained. I looked at them for a few moments. Nothing. Not a spark. Not a flicker of something. No joy. No sense of accomplishment. Even as I looked at them, they felt as hollow as when I had gotten them. Just emptiness when I looked at them. My parents had expected them out of me, it was only my job to make sure I got them. A lot of good they were currently doing me in this job search.

A long sigh escaped my lungs as I continued to the door. I grabbed the backpack hung in the entry closet, and left my parents’ house. My morning routine with the break to gaze at the worthless metal had taken me seventeen minutes almost exactly. I unclipped my umbrella from my backpack and opened it. Today was dim, dreary, and depressing. The weather too.

I arrived at the bus station, and sat on the bench. From my backpack, I pulled out my headphones so I could listen to music as I waited. By my current estimate, it should be about three songs until the bus arrives. Now that I was free from the house, time wasn’t as important. I let out a deep sigh as I started a random playlist; time never stops marching. As the fourth song started up, the bus had arrived. I closed my umbrella, hopped on, showed the driver my pass, and took a seat by the window.

The bus was scheduled to reach my destination in thirty seven minutes. The walk from the stop to the building was roughly seven minutes forty five seconds. Time just kept slipping away. Is it going to be this way until I eventually die? Time feels like it is moving so much faster than when I was a kid. Time really never stops marching. It was suffocating. Time truly was a merciless master. But it’s at least consistent. Keeping time was one of the few things that kept me sane, somehow knowing how much passed and how much longer always calmed me.

As the bus entered the inner city, I saw the typical sights: an idiot getting mugged in an alley, drivers blasting horns like that was going to fix traffic, some teenagers getting on being all rowdy and noisy, people rushing along the sidewalk to work, and a few homeless people getting chased out of a spot by the police. I just felt this odd sense of loathing and disgust when I looked out at the people. Even when they did nothing to me, I just always got pissed off when I dealt with people. People just sucked. I couldn’t even remember a time I interacted with people and thought, wow, this is fun! I honestly just wanted it to end. This world was crap to the core.

I got off at my designated stop, opened my umbrella back up, and started walking to my destination. My phone started buzzing, so I pulled it out of my pocket and saw it was my mother trying to call me. I took off my headphones, unplugged them from my phone, and with a sigh I answered.

“Hello?” I asked, holding the ear a tentative distance from my ear, while turning to face the brick wall I was near to try and dampen out the background noise a bit.

“YOU LEFT WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE THIS MORNING YOU INGR-” she started before I hung up the phone. Was not in the mood to deal with that.

Immediately my phone began buzzing again. This time it was my father calling. There was just going to be no winning was there? I picked up the phone, again holding it at a distance from my ear.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice sounding robotic to even me.

“When your mom calls you, you answer. Is that so hard for you to grasp? I thought you were supposed to be smart.” he chided.

“I did answer. I just hung up.” I replied. I was not in the mood right now for their crap.

“WHY WOULD YOU HANG UP ON YOUR MOTHER WITH HOW MUCH WE DO FO-” my father started before I hung up.

Turned my phone off. This was going to be a fun yelling match later. Free migraine included! I just sighed as I returned my phone to my pocket, just shaking my head. That was about two minutes of my life I was never getting back, and the yelling match was bound to last several hours. I just sighed heavily and began to turn around.

As I began to turn around, all I heard was some screaming. Then came the pain. It felt like a train hit me through the wall. I was inside the building, vaguely aware of the massive hole in the wall I had led the charge for. The world was spinning, my entire body seemed broken. I didn’t have time for this. Time just stop for me just this once, please I just need more time. I couldn’t afford this. I tried moving but was met with excruciating agony. It was starting to feel quite cold. Something touching me was a warm liquid, but it couldn’t be the rain. Rain wouldn’t puddle like this was the last thought that went through my mind as all faded to black.